This biographical account of Erin Gruwell's work with marginalized youth explores the relevancy of her work for today's educators, especially those responsible for the education of future school leaders. Through both a review of the literature and in-depth interview with Gruwell, this paper shows how Gruwell emerged as a teacher leader…

Teachers' careers are often considered to consist of two parts: pre-service and in-service. In-service refers to the entire time between a teacher's entry and exit from the profession. Recent research suggests teachers' careers actually consistent of several parts, known as phases or stages and, collectively, as the career cycle. This further…

This article is written by two new professors teaching at a faculty of education and follows on the completion of their first two years of teaching. They taught both core and elective courses offered in their faculty of education pre-service program. This article is a critical review of action research and teacher preparation literatures. It will…

A proposal for early field experiences in teacher education is based on the goal of preparing a teacher who will act on developing principles and who will continue to grow in contrast to a technician who acts with no underlying rationale. (CB)

Practical experiences have grown dramatically in teacher education programs, apparently from a general consensus of the rightness of such experiences as well as the vigorous criticisms of teacher education programs by practicing teachers. A review of research concerning practical experience in teacher education indicates that the knowledge and…

A period of induction for beginning teachers helps make the transition from student to teacher a smoother process. Current research findings on induction, effectiveness of using research in such programs, and issues worthy of further research are explored. (DF)

Program goals of the Doane College (Nebraska) teacher induction program include: improving teacher performance, retaining promising beginning teachers, promoting personal and professional well-being, satisfying mandated certification and induction requirements, providing strategies for beginning teachers to acquire additional knowledge and skills,…

The article re-examines the student teaching experience as it affects the prospective physical educator through review of: the meaning of student teaching as presently interpreted and applied in physical education; objectives of student teaching as analyzed by physical educators; and reports on perceived objectives achieved by student teaching in…

Describes the new dynamic found in exploring the role of discourse of discursive structures and normative practices through which teaching is figured and practiced. Develops an account that creates this new dynamic and encourages a missing conversation in the areas of emotions in teaching by discussing how sociopolitical and cultural aspects…

There have been repeated calls for educational researchers to increase their use of interpretive and naturalistic research paradigms to study, understand, and explain what happens in classrooms. A review of educational research literature, however, revealed only a few naturalistic studies of life in the classroom. Encouragingly, it appears that…

Short analytical writing exercises were designed to develop critical thinking and writing skills; stimulate creative thinking and writing; promote learning of psychological concepts; and to assess student knowledge. Design of these assignments was based on Bloom's taxonomy of multiple levels of critical thinking: recall, comprehension,…

This summary report on the Study of Induction Programs for Beginning Teachers offers insights on the findings of the study. Two kinds of programs were studied: preservice internship programs, and induction programs. A discussion is given on what the study revealed about the experiences of beginning teachers in the transition period from students…

Numerous studies on the education of teachers indicate that, as students advance educationally, their attitudes and beliefs tend to become increasingly liberal and progressive. However, the impact of the college education is "washed out" by the teaching experience. (JN)

An inductive analysis of studies on discipline reveal four characteristics of effective classroom management. Preservice teachers should be able to: (1) develop a workable set of rules; (2) respond consistently to inappropriate behavior; (3) structure activities to minimize disruption; and (4) respond to, but not denigrate, the disruptive student.…

Traditionally, educational psychology has been a content-oriented course covering methodology, measurement, and learning theories. Recently, however, those in teacher education have been required to add a large clinical and field component to the course. An experiential taxonomy developed by Norman Steinaker and Robert Bell is flexible enough to…